Friday, May 03, 2002
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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
The way Sandeep started, breaking the first two service games of Mustafa, it looked as though the latter would fall in line with the national champions Manoj Mahadevan and Vijay Kannan who had made their bow to the former Davis Cupper. However, Mustafa was putting his game together and getting his confidence back as early as in the eighth game of the first set, when he saved three setpoints. Into the second set, there was a definite swing in the fortunes in a long-drawn fourth game, when Sandeep saved seven breakpoints only to be broken in the eighth, as he put a backhand long. That seemed to have broken the resistance of the 28-year-old Sandeep, who had come through three rounds in the qualifying event. He had also played a three-setter late into the evening on Wednesday in the doubles, and the reserves of energy seemed to have dried up, even as the mercury shot up on the thermometer. It was no wonder that Sandeep went through the motions for the better of the second and third sets thereafter, winning one of the next 10 games, a break in the second game of the decider. To his credit, the 21-year-old Mustafa grabbed the chances as he started smacking the groundstrokes with considerable relish, especially on the backhand. He served a lot better and moved with purpose, in pinning down the champion of a different era. The former national grasscourt champion, Mustafa, had tried a bit too hard in the beginning, and did not have a clue about putting away the second serves of Sandeep, which the latter put to good use in saving those breakpoints, when he deliberately held back the first serves. Mustafa will meet the fourth-seeded Eliran Dooyev of Israel in the semifinals. The latter, too, had to battle his way past Spaniard Rafael Moreno-Negri in three sets in a contest that spanned two hours and 11 minutes. Third seed Nitin Kirtane gave a glimpse of his fighting ability as he subdued the temperamental Giunior Ghedina of Germany 6-4, 7-6 (7-0), with his crafty game of slice and spin in an hour and a half. Nitin started on a positive note, breaking Ghedina in the first game, and that proved decisive for him to clinch the first set. In the second, breaks were exchanged in the seventh and eighth games, and Nitin did well to save breakpoints in the 10th and 12th games to force the tie-break. In the tie-break, the volatile Ghedina blew his fuse, and was given a code violation for racquet abuse. Yet, he kept banging his racquet on court, from one end of the court to another when the players changed at 6-0. The match was over before the chair umpire could contemplate further disciplinary action against Ghedina. Nitin will take on the second-seeded Tomer Suissa of Israel, who pulled through comfortably against compatriot Raviv Volkovotzky. The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Mustafa Ghouse bt Sandeep Kirtane 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt Rafael Moreno-Negri (Esp) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Nitin Kirtane bt Giunior Ghedina (Ger) 6-4, 7-6 (7-0); Tomer Suissa (Isr) bt Raviv Volkovotzky (Isr) 7-5, 6-4. Doubles (semifinals): Mustafa Ghouse and Vijay Kannan bt Giunior Ghedina and Sebastian Niedermayer (Ger) 6-1, 6-4; Serguei Demekhine and Ivan Syrov (Rus) w.o. Nitin Kirtane and Vishaal Uppal.
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